MARGAO: This Christmas season was not really fun filled for many Catholics in Salcete as they had to celebrate it without amenities like water and on Thursday the internet was down due to disruption of the broadband connectivity.
It was particularly irksome for residents of Navelim who had to bear with disrupted water supply before Christmas and also during the Christmas week. What was particularly irksome was the while was due to a technical problem the other disruption could have been surely avoided.
An official of the water supply department revealed that just before Christmas there was a major problem in Davorlim area as the contractor laying the dedicated fibre optic cable for the Indian Armed Forces premises in the State cut the damaged the water supply line.
Hardly had the people of Navelim recovered from this trauma, on December 27 they were again forced to live without water supply as the water supply was disconnected at 12 noon so that the new valves could be connected to the supply line.
“We too feel bad about the fact that people had to suffer but we could not help it as the work had to be done,” said one official who did not wish to be named when asked whether the valves could not be connected after the Christmas week.
He justified his department’s action by pointing out to the various road works going on which causes an emergency situation as water supply lines are constantly damaged by the contractors and hence they have to be prepared for an emergency at all times.
At Ambora too the water supply line burst following an increase in the pressure and resulted in the people not having water for nearly 24 hours during the Christmas week.
To make matters worse yesterday the broad band fibre optic cable was damaged at two places by the Public Works Department due to which there was no internet connectivity since yesterday and the same was restored only this afternoon.
Agitated BSNL subscribers were seen visiting the Area Manager at Margao to complain about the lack of internet and the manager could only ask the people to bear with the department due to the negligence of the public works department.
The broad band cable was damaged while demolishing the culvert at Chicalim and also along the Cortalim Agassaim bridge due to the ongoing work on the new Zuari bridge.
